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MWC - I'm a bit more lenient
than Guy here, as the magnetic closures and completely collector
friendly nature of the packaging is still top notch for me. It doesn't
quite compare to some of the new packaging we're seeing from Hot Toys
and Enterbay, but it's still some of the best on the market. I'm
looking forward to what we get from Sideshow with any new license...if
we ever see them announce another new sixth scale license, that is.
Sculpting - Guy ****;
MWC ****
Guy - Holy Crap…Sean Connery is in my house!!!! This sculpt
is so spot on its frightening. The stern judgmental look he
gives to Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. is here in all its glory.
Great sculpting is hard to do and when they get this wonderful they
belong in a museum. Thankfully Michael and I have one each.
The tight and tiny cuts needed
to show the hair in the beard and on his head…fantastic. The
ears got me as well. There is so much depth here that it
seems life-like. It is fun to put this Connery next to my Bond figure
from Sideshow, not only to see how Connery has aged but also how far
Sideshow has come on their sculpts.
The hands too are
great. There are 2 pair, fists and accessory holding
hands. The hands could have been standard issue but nope...we
get aged hands, and it’s a great touch.
MWC - it's gorgeous work, no
doubt about it. That's two human head sculpts in a row that show
tremendous realism (Lando and now Henry), and Henry does NOT have the
annoying oversized issue that poor Lando has. The detail work on the
hair is particularly nice, but it's really the wrinkles and fine lines
of the face that give it that realism.
It's also an excellent likeness
of Connery
as Jones, with no production issues to hold back the original
artistry. This is easily the best head sculpt in the Sideshow Indy
line. You could pick some nits - the nose is slightly off, and the chin
could be a little narrower - but these issues really are quite minor.
I've
included a photo of the last Indy with his dad, and it's pretty obvious
that this head is about 20% or so smaller, especially in person. Of
course, it also helps that Henry Sr's costume is thicker and bulks up
the body a bit.
The open hands are sculpted to
work with the accessories, and they can hold and pose with them all
quite well. There's also the fisted pair, which we'll discuss more in
the Accessories section.
Pops Jones stands about the same
height as his son though, since they both use the Pro body, but
switching him out to a narrow shouldered or slim TrueType wouldn't be
very tough. I'd only suggest it though if you are looking for a little
more height in relation to Indy.
Paint - Guy ****, MWC ***1/2
Guy - Mike says over and over again how much paint can wreck a sculpt,
and we all know that to be true, but this is a great example of how it
can make a great sculpt even better. Multiple light washes of
color over the beard bring out such a natural life-like
look. First, a light wash of white, then a light
grey, then a darker one. I am not sure how many different
washes they did but I am grateful for each and every one.
The eyes are not overly glossy
and have some great life to them. They did a wash of umber on
the side of the face and in the ear and nose area bringing out depth
and texture. The wrinkles in the forehead, the deep lines of
the mouth all come out here. The lips get a subtle gloss but
less than on some other figures giving him a few more years than some
of our other Indy characters.
MWC - Looking at the photos of
the beard and hair, particularly close ups, you might not think they
are as good as Guy describes. They are. The problem here with close ups
is that it's like looking too close at an oil painting. Stand back and
it's a beautiful scene - get too close and it's just blobs of paint. In
hand, the paint application gives a very lifelike appearance to the
facial hair and eyebrows, as well as what hair he has left on his head.
Oddly, he has the catch lights
again (doll dots), which Sideshow lost with a couple of their more
recent releases. However, they are VERY tiny, making them pretty much a
non-issue.
All the work is clean and neat,
with excellent eyes, lips and skin tone. I scored slightly lower here
than Guy because of an issue that I suspect may be specific to mine, or
that at least varies quite a bit from figure to figure - that 'umber'
of which Guy speaks. The skin around the temples of my figure
is very, very dark, looking more like a bad case of rosacea than a
natural variation in tone. It's not obvious from a front on view, but
in person detracted enough to pull the score down slightly. If yours
lacks this issue, I can readily understand a four star score.
Of course, this doesn't mean
it's quite as good as the best Hot Toys quality...yet. But it
certainly rivals some of their work, and at a price point of almost
half, that's quite impressive.
Articulation - Guy ***1/2; MWC
***1/2
Guy - Sideshow's Prometheus body is finally coming into its own. I
didn't have a single technical issue this time - no breakage, no loose
joints, no trouble swapping heads or hands, nothing. And with those
technical issues out of the way, the body can show its true potential.
The Pro has all the articulation
you expect in a high-end sixth scale figure, and that articulation
works properly. The body hangs naturally, and takes (and holds) very
lifelike, realistic poses. Henry is able to stand with his weight
shifted to either foot, bring his elbows in close to his torso, tilt
his head in ever direction, and keep his feet flat on the ground in
just about any stance. These are all critical aspects for a sixth scale
body, and allow for fluid, flowing poses.
I'm also very happy with the
wrist pegs. While they are a little tight, I had no problem swapping
hands.
MWC - Yep, everything Guy said.
I didn't have any mechanical issues this time around, and the issues
with loose joints seem to be corrected. I particularly like the wrists
and ankles, which have an excellent range of movement and are quite
easy to swap. And let's not forget the ball neck joint, which allows
for plenty of tilt in any direction.
There's still the wonky look to
the hips in some poses though, a problem that didn't really bother me
until the bigger issues had been corrected. It's not a major issue for
me, but there's just something about the way the front of the leg
sticks out in certain poses that keeps the body from a perfect score.
It's not a big enough issue that I feel any desire to swap this figure
to something else (as I mentioned earlier, I'd only do that if I was
looking for a little more height for the character), and I'm satisfied
enough with the Pro at this point that it would never be a factor in a
purchase decision.
Accessories - Guy *** (regular)
***1/2 (exclusive); MWC ****
Guy - I have the exclusive as I do with all Indy Sideshow figures and
this one gets the extra ½ star for the grail Tablet. If you
are a geek like I am for this stuff, get a good piece of paper
from a craft store, a darker red colored pencil and with a soft careful
touch you too can have a grail tablet rubbing. You can do
it…trust me.
He comes with his grail diary.
It has a dark leather cover with rounded corners, a few scratches and
scrapes to show its age. It’s opened to a page and it is a
dead on miniature. I have included a shot of the actual
filmed diary here...yes I have seen it.
Next up is the umbrella. Wow,
Sideshow you’re doing so great. The umbrella is folded shut
and has the wooden handle and tip. Each of those gets a wash
to give it a wood like appearance and silver metal accents on the tip
and ribs. Instead of leaving it in molded black they gave it a wash to
bring out the folds in the fabric and the look of
waterproofing.
The grail itself, it has the
splotched red clay and gold foiling that the screen prop did.
Something seems a bit off on it but its still great and so many were
used for stunts and close ups that any grail looks
good.
Henry’s case. This is
an awesome piece. It’s heavy for one thing, so know that when
posing him, as it puts a lot of extra weight on whatever hand you put
it in. Brass clasps and hinges, real leather straps, a handle
rigged to move on tiny rings and so much age you can imagine the miles
this thing has seen.
The grail tablet made to look of
stone and even the cuts around the edges are movie
accurate. Now doing lettering that small and
sculpted is difficult and so it’s not perfect but it would take an
uber-geeky Indy fan to notice. Thankfully there are few of
those. This exclusive piece is fantastic to have and I lucked
out in getting him, but even without the tablet the accessories for
Henry are out of this world.
MWC - I'm being more generous
than Guy here, largely because I'm so impressed by the sheer number of
unique items.
The grail diary looks great,
fits in his hands nicely, and as Guy said, has a page right out of the
film. The closed umbrella is very realistic, and while it seems a
smidge small, it's definitely going to be something he's always holding
on my shelf. I suspect the same will be true of the large case, with
leather straps and a fantastic paint job. These are iconic accessories
for the character, so the attention to detail and realism is much
appreciated.
There's also the Grail itself,
painted to look like the gold is flaking and worn. It doesn't look
quite screen accurate to me, but it's tough to tell for sure. Still, it
looks great in his hands, and will also look nice sitting behind him on
a table or book case in a diorama.
There's also the extra set of
fisted hands, as well as the usual display stand.
Finally, the exclusive comes
with the tablet. I'm clearly not a big enough Indy nerd, because it
never dawned on me to try to make my own rubbing. I'll take Guy's word
for it.
Outfit - Guy - ***3/4; MWC ****
Guy - The wind up, the pitch, and WACK!! out of the park it
goes. The glasses…YES, the glasses. They are
perfect. We have it, ladies and gentleman, our first perfect
pair of 1/6th scale character accurate glasses. Clean lenses and tiny
brass frames and Indy’s Dad comes to life.
The hat is sculpted and that’s
the best idea as with a cloth one it may have been too floppy and
looked like the hat that came with Kenner’s 1981 Indiana Jones Action
Figure. This one has all the right texture and stitching, and
the paint wash on it does it justice. It is not easy to get a
tweed hat right in any scale at all but yet here we have
one.
The suit is impressive as
well. The buttons are to scale and not overly large and what
Sideshow remembered and Medicom forgot was the leather belt that goes
around the waist of his vest. The choice of fabric in this
scale really gives it great life. The vest is a hook and
closer so it could be removed but I see no reason for it unless you
have two of the figures and want to do the open vest bloody shirt, end
of the movie figure. Hey…there’s and idea.
The collar of the white shirt is
high and covers the neck joint well; it’s truer than in other versions
of this character. The shoes are great too. They have
dust on them as well as dark laces and lighter stitching. The
tie is the second non-cloth item on him besides the hat. They
chose a molded tie and painted the tiny dots onto it. Medicom
used a cloth tie on theirs and that may be the only thing I like more
on their figure. So if you bought the Medicom version and this
one and now have no idea what to do with your other one, use the tie
and give this baby the 4 star outfit treatment. Nice job
Sideshow.
MWC - Again, I'm being more
generous than Guy. This is fairly rare...guest reviewers are usually
more generous than I, but I have to say that the glasses are what
really blows me away. They're so good, and so close to proper scale
(finally), that I suspect I may have gone a bit overboard here.
I actually do have a few nits
here, but not enough to supersede my overwhelming gratitude for proper
glasses. While I like this suit better than the Medicom version overall,
the fit is a little tight, and the color seems slightly off. I prefer
the plastic bow tie and hat, since cloth versions never look right in
this scale. The sculpted hat could use a little more texturing to match
the movie version, but again, a minor issue.
Yep, it's really all about those
glasses. They fit his face properly, they're the right scale (you might
think they're still a little big at first glance, but the glasses he
wore were actually a bit larger than you might
remember), and they really, really are the one touch that
allows the excellent sculpt to truly look like Henry Jones.
Fun Factor - Guy - ***; MWC **1/2
Guy - As I said before asking me to tell you how much fun Indy toys are
is not at all fair. To me they are all awesome but this one is
great. I love having something this accurate to my obsession here to
look at. Get this figure now.
MWC - yep, he's a fun figure,
and other than the glasses (which are naturally fragile), he's quite
sturdy and could actually stand up to some regular play. Still, this
isn't really a line you want to pick up for the kids - stick with
Hasbro.
Value - Guy ***1/2; MWC
***1/2
Guy - He is more than worth the 90-dollar price tag. I cannot
say enough good things about this figure and when you look at the
earlier version at $150 you know how great what Sideshow did is.
MWC - he's certainly well worth
the $80 - $90 you'll currently pay. In fact, he outshines the much more
expensive Medicom version in almost every way, and is one of the nicest
figures Sideshow has done in this price range.
Things to Watch Out For -
Guy - Be careful with those glasses. They are tiny and fragile
so take a breath and put them on the figure slowly, then sit back and
gaze in awe. Take some extra time if you slide the umbrella
along the top of the case and then put two into his hand, as it will be
tight so do not push it, again take it slow.
MWC - what Guy said about those
glasses. If you break them, you'll be crying the rest of the day, and
no one likes to see a grown man cry.
Overall - Guy - ***
1/2,
MWC ****
Guy - Wow. I was so excited to see him on display at SDCC, but here in
my hands he looks even better. The accessories and the sculpt
and the paint are so dead on, Sideshow can stand this figure next to
any Hot Toy figure and be proud. My Christmas wish is that
Sideshow keep the line going at this level and that they give me a
Marion Ravenwood for the New Year.
MWC - Had they gotten Lando's
head size right and not cheaped out on the belt, this is how good that
figure could have been. This figure is the cream of their Indy line,
and if we get future releases at this level of quality, it will make a
lot of Indy fans very, very happy.
I suspect these glasses are
going to be very high in demand, even though they don't quite work for
every situation. I know I'd like to pick up an extra pair to paint
silver and pop on Toht, that's for sure!
Score Recap:
Packaging - Guy ***,
MWC ***1/2
Sculpting - Guy ****; MWC ****
Paint - Guy ****, MWC ***1/2
Articulation - Guy ***1/2; MWC ***1/2
Accessories - Guy *** (regular) ***1/2 (exclusive); MWC ****
Outfit - Guy - ***3/4; MWC ****
Fun Factor - Guy - ***; MWC **1/2
Value - Guy ***1/2; MWC ***1/2
Overall - Guy - ***1/2, MWC ****
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